Ambitions
by TheDeep
Summary: A vic on Broadway brings Stella's attention to a battle for head of a prestigious design company in New York! My attempt at 2NYwLove's challenge. I got Stella, Broadway, the AV Lab, and Ambitious. Now, it's my first challenge, so if I did it wrong, it's my fault...but I gotta ask you be nice...I'm still getting used to this whole challenge thing...


**~ Ambitions ~**

**Alright, this is my first challenge…this is my response to 2NYwLove's challenge. I got Stella, Broadway, the AV Lab, and Ambitious. So…seeing as this is my first challenge, I'd appreciate it if you were all nice and I'd love to hear your opinion on it…not to mention I think I'd like to take a few more challenges on in the future, so keep me in mind!**

**. . . . . . . .**

Stella sighed softly and set her kit down at her feet before she quickly tied her hair back in to a ponytail.

"Pretty public place for a murder, don't ya think?" Don asked as he joined her, looking down at their vic with a bit of a what Stella could only call a frown.

"Tell me about it. No place to dump a body like Broadway!" she said with a slight grin as she kneeled down and whipped out a pair of latex gloves and slid them on.

Don nodded. "Well…the story to go with it is just about as weird as your killer's public choice," he told her as she looked at the singular gunshot wound on the vic.

Stella's eyebrows shot up, but she didn't look up. "Oh yeah?" she asked as she checked the pockets of the vic's jacket and came up with an ID.

Flack nodded. "Oh yeah. Supposedly the woman that found him is his coworker!" he said. Stella had to smirk at the almost sarcastic tone of Flack's comment.

"You believe her?" Stella asked, leaning back in to a more upright position and momentarily bracing herself against the pavement with one of her hands. "Did she say who the vic is?" she added another question as she looked over the driver's license she found in the wallet. According to this the vic was a 45 year old man named Brantley Corbin, head of a prestigious building designing company based out of Manhattan. Stella had heard about the company on the news a few times.

"Brantley Corbin. Mrs. Maxwell says Corbin here is her boss," Flack replied.

Stella nodded. "Right on the money," she said, twisting around so she looked up at the tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed homicide detective, showing him the driver's license.

Flack eyed the ID presented to him by Stella. "Hmm…how ironic," he grunted, turning back to his notes. "Maxwell says they were both gunning for the head of the company as big boss man was retiring," he said.

"You're thinking motive?" Stella asked knowingly as she turned back to Corbin's body.

"Answer: Daily Double," Flack said with a grin.

Stella chuckled a bit. "Your humor really keeps me going sometimes, you know that?" she asked.

Flack smiled. "I'm touched," he said, holding a hand over his chest where his heart was and looking down at Stella. Stella smirked even more at the look on his face she saw when she looked up at him.

"Alright. Maxwell got a first name, Romeo?" she teased.

Flack's smile fell right off his face. "Really? That's what you pay me back with?" he asked, frowning.

Stella smiled and gave him a pat on the shoulder after she'd taken her gloves off. "Yup. Answer: Daily Double," she quipped with an innocent grin.

Flack sighed, shook his head, and rolled his eyes. "Why do I put up with you guys?" he muttered. Stella smirked and punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"Anyways…she told me she had no idea what happened," Don said, finally telling Stella what she wanted to know.

"Thank you," Stella said, hands on her hips in an exaggeration.

Flack smirked. "Don't thank me yet. I got you security tapes from the local security cameras," he said as one of the officer that he'd waved over joined them and offered Stella some tapes.

"Ooohhh, goodie!" Stella said with a grin as she accepted the tapes. She looked back to Don, who was grinning in amusement at her reaction. "I'm heading back to the lab and I'll run over these…possibly with the help of Adam," she said. "Call me if you get anything," she said as she gathered up her kit.

Flack smirked and nodded as he flipped his notebook closed. "Certainly, Detective Bonasera!" he said, straightening up his posture and giving her a salute.

Stella smirked and rolled her eyes, punching him lightly in the shoulder again as she headed towards her car. "Very cute, Don!" she called over her shoulder, leaving Flack smirking at that.

. . . . . . . . .

Stella stretched her arms above her head without taking her eyes off the screen in front of her. She'd gone through the first tape with nothing interesting brought to her attention and then Sid had called her with a TOD. The COD, as Stella had guessed, was the single GSW to the chest. She'd asked if she needed to come down, but Sid had told her no and that he'd call her if he got anything else that she needed to know about it from that.

Knowing TOD, she had skipped the second tape of security footage to the third tape. All of them were labeled for time slots and dates, making her search a whole lot easier.

Then…something caught her eye. A single stopped car, parked along the road near her crime scene. She watched as the driver got out and was only a bit surprised that she recognized Maxwell, that girl Don had told her about earlier, get out of the car. She leaned back in her seat as she watched Maxwell drag, with a lot of difficulty of course, the dead weight of Brantley Corbin out of the back seat of the vehicle to leave his body on the sidewalk at the head of the alley where they had found him.

"Ambitious turns murderous," she muttered.

"Answer: Daily Double." Stella smiled at Flack's voice. "Plus, I've got someone who wants to talk to you," he said.

Stella spun her chair around so she faced Don and the homicide detective stepped aside to reveal Maxwell standing there.

Stella couldn't help but frown. "We couldn't do this in interrogation?" she asked, looking from the blonde Maxwell to Don.

"She insisted on talking to you…wherever you were, which just so happens to be here," Don offered as an answer.

"I didn't kill him!" Maxwell stated right off, hazel eyes darting from the screen to Stella and then to Don.

"Then why does this video show you lugging his body out of that car? Is it your car?" Stella questioned, not at all taking her answer seriously.

"No! That's not me!" Maxwell lied again. Stella couldn't help but note she lied horribly.

"Yes it is," Stella said. "You're the only one in this case that matches even a general ID of this person," she said, pointing to Maxwell's figure on the screen of the computer. "But lucky for you, this movie is presented to you in HD!" she couldn't help but add, switching to a frame that showed Maxwell looking directly at the camera. It clearly was the blonde that stood in the lab with her now.

"But I didn't shoot him!" Maxwell insisted.

Stella sighed, her shoulders slumping in "defeat." "Alright, if that's true…you won't mind me checking your hands for GSR, will you?" she shot at the blonde.

Maxwell stared almost blankly at her as Stella stood from her seat. "GSR?" she asked as Stella motioned for the blonde to follow her to her office, where she pulled out her kit and then grabbed the few things she'd need for the test.

"Gunshot residue," Stella replied as she took one of Maxwell's hands. The blonde still seemed lost, so Stella elaborated, "Hold your hand like you're holding a gun."

Maxwell did as she was told and Stella quickly swabbed her hand, and then her other hand, before adding the concoction from her kit. She frowned just a bit when the small pad she'd used to swab Maxwell's hands turned blue from the solution reacting with GSR.

"You lied," she stated simply.

Maxwell looked blankly at her. "No I didn't," she stated stubbornly.

Stella almost rolled her eyes. She had heard that stubborn tone so many times from Mac that she recognized it instantly. "You shot Corbin. Why?"

Maxwell let out a sigh, rolled her eyes, and quickly folded her arms across her chest. "I was better for the job," she muttered.

"Excuse me?" Stella asked, knowing what she was talking about, but wanting to get the whole story.

"We were both gunning for the head of the company and even he knew I was better!" Maxwell snapped impatiently and Stella caught the glint of anger and ambition in her eyes. Her ambition was a bit dangerous. She had gone about getting the position the wrong way.

"So you killed him," she said.

Maxwell looked over at her, seeming a bit distressed. "I didn't mean too…I just…I just wanted to talk with him…and when he refused to back down…and came towards me…I…I just pulled the trigger! He got what was coming to him anyway! You would've known if you'd known him!" she snapped again. "I couldn't let him take what was rightfully and obviously mine," she added with a nod.

It almost disgusted Stella that she seemed to think she'd justified herself and her actions and that she seemed to believe what she did was right.

"Alright. Why don't we go down to the precinct and I want you to write that down. All of it. Why? Because you're under arrest for murder," Stella stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

Maxwell shot a glare at her, which Stella ignored and instead looked to Flack. "Wanna walk down with me and our lovely guest?" she asked.

Flack almost smirked. "With pleasure."


End file.
